Browsing Archive: April, 2017

After last nights tragic news of the sudden
death of pop music icon Prince at just 57, I felt compelled to share how his
contribution to music, art and design had touched my life.

Last night I tuned into one of my favorite
internet radio shows and to my surprise, the station was playing back to back
Prince tunes. It was out of character for this station, but I wasn’t
complaining as Ive been a big fan of Prince over the years and continued to
listen, wondering if the DJ had scored an interv...

I can clearly remember the first time that
I ever tried authentic west country cider with strong cheddar cheese. I was
with my father and it was from a place that he called Lukie’s, in the mendip
region. On a recent trip back to the UK (I currently live in Cape Town), I
could clearly see that Lukie’s no longer existed… that’s even if it was called
Lukie’s in the first place as my dad seems remembers it as Luke’s, without the
‘I’

Anyone that knows me, knows that I’ve been
trying to redesign the egg box for a good many years now. After seemingly
always finding a broken egg in my box, I started to examine new materials and
design. My concept was that, even if the box cost a little more to mass
produce, would the world save on broken eggs? Its a project I’ve never quite
achieved an answer or too, or managed to execute on. That said, I was recently
in my local Woolworths and it looks as though their bright design mind... Continue reading ...

HAPS is a hardware store. Under the
marketing plan, a number of the measures have been proposed to the clients in
order to increase the buyer loyalty. One of these steps is a small promotional
gift fot the purchase. It has been supposed to make a present for the buyers
such as the bathroom accessories and tools needed for house...

At the end of 2016, as I draw closer to my
final week with CTTC Design, I had been handing over as much
information as I could to my then design team, to which I extend you all
on this list now. I know that many have often laughed at me being such a design
groupie… I promise that it comes from my love of what I do! To this end, before
I left, I had decided to note down a few of the things that have helped to
bring great joy, learning and passion to my design life over the years, and now
won... Continue reading ...

I am sure that many of you already know
that today is my last day with CTTC Design, before beginning an exciting new
role in 2017, (more on this soon).

When I left the UK for South Africa back in
2009, my brief was to help grow a fully operational design studio. It has taken
a lot of blood, sweat and tears and I have loved every single second of it! I
am so proud that today, not only have we achieved our objective, but I strongly
believe that we have a world class design team with some of Ca...

Whilst in the UK recently to attend a
family wedding in Nottingham, we popped into where my wife’s father was staying
for the event. It was on a beautiful red brick estate. As I walked through the
main entrance I noticed a bookshelf. Inside was a gem of a boys
annual, ‘Best Book For Boys’. Lucky the owner of the house was there and I
quickly asked her if she wouldn’t mind me photographic this rare publication.
As I flipped through, I could see that the edition was published by The
Ne... Continue reading ...

This fantastic reference book is a great
addition to any package designers library, filled with examples of some of the
Worlds best. There is a super intro highlighting the important role that
packaging plays within business and the relationship to the consumer.

There are also a number of case studies,
featuring renown package design work for some of the worlds largest businesses,
including M&S foods, R Designs original work for the ‘Food Doctor’
(before Pearlfishers redesign) and Pentag...

In addition to my previous post, this is
the third Nectar Tea tin I am featuring at Retro Design Love and although there
are the obvious similarities, this one is really quite different to the others
I have shown!

This particular tin uses the same type style,
narrative illustrations and decorative pattern elements as the previous two,
however this version uses a totally different ‘rounded’ construct. The colour
palette is also very different and uses tones of blues, silver and cream.

I have shot this wonderful vintage tea tin
in two different locations in South Africa. Once at a bed and breakfast in
Ceres and the other at an Antiques shop in Prince Albert.

The detail in the tin’s design is just
incredible and it has a different image, beautifully illustrated, on each of
its side panels. I have placed images next to each other, from both times that
I have viewed the tin, to help show how the illustrations had changed subtlety
between different production runs.

Vincent Steer (born 1888) was a compositor
and is renown for being the founder of the British Typographers’ Guild.

In 1934, Steer wrote Printing Design and
Layout. The book is a masterpiece and has been referred to as “A Complete
Course in Typography" and as the “Typographer’s Bible”. The book is a
thing of beauty and I was lucky enough to see an original copy, whilst working
with one of my print partners in Cape Town.

This is a super book that works as a handy
reference when aiming your designs at specific customer groups. There are some
great case studies. The book is by Mark Hampshire and Keith Stephenson and is
published by Page One.

In a time before PlayStation, Xbox and
Pokemon Go, was a world of ingenious board games, created to capture the
excitement of the whole family. On a recent visit to my old family home, my brother
and I ventured into the attic where we found this fantastic example of a
1970′s board game.

I love the artwork on the packaging! A
fantastic illustration style, very representative of the time, showing two
young boys engrossed in the enjoyment of the game. The image really
captured the excitement ...

Back in 2013, when my wife was still
pregnant with our son, we had a wonderful and memorable holiday, visiting
KwaZulu-Natal. It was such a special time and I remember us travelling along
the Midlands Meander, a feast for lovers of arts and crafts. I really recommend
a visit!

On route we came across this wonderful
trading post, with the buildings outside lined with vintage signage hoardings
and the inside with an impressive collection of packaging from the past. My
poor pregnant wife literal...

A good friend sent this brilliant
conceptual design for pasta packaging back in March 2016, when it was featured
on the contemporist.
It has since gone viral, appearing on a number of respected design blogs. I
just love how this fun concept uses the different pasta to signify individual
hair styles. Designed by Nikita Konkin.

Made by Stewart & Young in Glasgow, this
stunning early Edwardian candy tin has some really attractive
illustrations, all in a colour palette of dark green, rich red and gold.
Produced as a souvenir for the Scottish National Exhibition of 1908, ‘The
Steamship Brand’ was established to supply all nations. This particular tin
measures approximately 165mm x 120 x 80mm and is a beautiful example of
this brand.

Many years ago, I travelled across the USA.
It was an incredible experience that I will always cherish. Business has kept
me traveling back and I have since designed branding and packaging for some of
the countries largest retailers. One of my memories of my time traveling the US
was the bright branding used by the many of fast food companies. Competition in
the US was so much greater than that of the UK, where at the time I had
travelled from. Now living in Cape Town many of the chains are s... Continue reading ...